RedAlertop

RedAlertop is a small, lightweight Windows tray application written in C# (.NET Framework WinForms) that shows Israeli Red Alert (Tzeva Adom) rocket alerts on your desktop. It runs in the background, polls the Pikud HaOref (Home Front Command) alert feed or listens on an MQTT broker, and pops up a tray notification and plays an alarm sound when an alert is issued for your region.

Warning

Safety disclaimer. RedAlertop is an unofficial hobby project. It is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or connected to Pikud HaOref (the Home Front Command) or any government body. Alerts can be delayed, missed, or wrong: the feed can be unreachable, your PC can be asleep or offline, and the app can crash. Do not rely on it for life safety. Always use the official Home Front Command app, the official alert channels, and the public sirens, and follow the Home Front Command's instructions.

Table of contents

• Features
• Screenshots
• How it works
• Requirements
• Installation
• Configuration
• Usage
• Troubleshooting
• Known issues and limitations
• Security notes
• Development
• Contributing
• License

Features

• Runs in the system tray, starts minimized and hidden, and uses few resources.
• Two alert sources:
  • HTTP (default): polls the Pikud HaOref alert feed once per second.
  • MQTT: subscribes to the /redalert topic on an MQTT broker you provide.
• Region filtering: * (the default) shows every alert; otherwise only alerts for your areas are shown.
• Tray balloon notification with the time, the alert title and the list of alerted areas.
• Plays an alarm sound. The bundled alarmSound.wav is the default; you can pick any .wav file.
• An in-app log window that lists every alert received while the app is running.
• Optional start with Windows (a shortcut in your Startup folder).
• Duplicate protection: an alert ID that was already shown is skipped (overlapping polls can still let a duplicate through).
• Single instance: a second copy of the app exits immediately.

Screenshots

Main window

Tray icon

How it works

flowchart LR
    A[Pikud HaOref alerts.json] -- "HTTP poll every 1 s" --> L[OrefListener]
    B[MQTT broker, topic /redalert] -- "JSON message" --> M[MQTTListener]
    L --> F{New alert ID and<br/>region matches?}
    M --> F
    F -- yes --> N[Tray balloon + alarm sound + log window]

Loading

The source is chosen at startup by the AlertSource setting (http or mqtt).

HTTP mode (default)

Helpers/OrefListener.cs requests https://www.oref.org.il/WarningMessages/alert/alerts.json every 1 second (TLS 1.2) with these headers:

Header	Value
Referer	https://www.oref.org.il/
User-Agent	A desktop Chrome 78 on Windows 10 user agent string
X-Requested-With	XMLHttpRequest

An empty response means there is no active alert. A non-empty response is parsed as JSON with the fields id, title and data (the list of alerted areas). If the request fails, the error is written to Redalert.log in the application folder and that request's handler sleeps 3 seconds. The 1-second timer keeps firing in the meantime, so polls can overlap.

MQTT mode

Helpers/MQTTListener.cs connects to the broker in MQTTBroker with the MQTTUser / MQTTPass credentials and a random client ID, and subscribes to the topic /redalert with QoS 1. Every message must be a JSON object in the same format as the Oref feed (example values):

{ "id": 132456789, "title": "ירי רקטות וטילים", "data": ["שדרות", "ניר עם"] }

If the connection closes, the app retries to connect once per second. On exit it publishes Disconnected to /redalert/LWT and unsubscribes.

Note

The Redalert project also publishes to /redalert, but with plain-text payloads (on, No active alerts), not JSON. RedAlertop crashes on any non-JSON message on /redalert, so pointing it at a broker where Redalert publishes will make it exit. You need a publisher that sends the Oref JSON object to /redalert.

Alert handling

For both sources, an alert is shown only when:

1. its id has not been shown before during this run (overlapping HTTP polls can occasionally let a duplicate through), and
2. the region filter matches (see Region filtering).

The notification is a tray balloon titled Red Alert (warning icon, requested 3-second timeout that Windows may ignore) that contains the local time the alert was received (dd/MM/yyyy HH:mm), the alert title and each alerted area on its own line. At the same time the sound file plays once, and a line with the time, title and areas is added to the log window.

Requirements

• Windows 10 or Windows Server 2016 or later (the targets listed in the InstallForge .ifp installer project).
• .NET Framework 4.5 or later (the project targets v4.5).
• For HTTP mode: internet access to www.oref.org.il. The Oref site may block requests from outside Israel.
• For MQTT mode: an MQTT broker that publishes Oref-format JSON to /redalert.

Installation

Installer from GitHub Releases

Download the setup from the Releases page. The only release is RedAlertop 1.0.0 (May 2021, asset RedAlertop.Setup.zip). It was published before MQTT support was added (September 2021), so it supports HTTP mode only.

Installer committed to the repository

A newer build of the setup is committed at Installer/Output/RedAlertop.exe (September 2021).

Caution

Both setup files are not code-signed, so Windows SmartScreen will warn about an unknown publisher. Only run them if you trust the source, or build the app yourself from source.

What the installer does

The installer is built with Inno Setup from Installer/Setup.iss:

• Installs to {autopf}\RedAlertop. The installer runs in 32-bit mode, so on 64-bit Windows this is C:\Program Files (x86)\RedAlertop. It needs administrator rights.
• Copies RedAlrtop.exe, RedAlrtop.exe.config, alarmSound.wav, RedAlert.ico, Newtonsoft.Json.dll, Interop.IWshRuntimeLibrary.dll and Interop.Shell32.dll.
• Creates a Start menu shortcut, plus an optional desktop shortcut (unchecked by default).
• Offers to launch RedAlertop when setup finishes. Use this option: the first launch writes the config file in the installation folder, so it must run elevated (see Troubleshooting).
• Registers a standard uninstaller in Apps & features.
• Does not add a startup entry. Use the Start RedAlertop at windows startup option in the app.

The Installer/*.ifp files are an older InstallForge project for the same app. Release 1.0.0 was very likely built with InstallForge, and Setup.iss came later.

Build from source

See Development.

Configuration

Settings are appSettings keys in App.config, which is deployed as RedAlrtop.exe.config next to the executable (for example C:\Program Files (x86)\RedAlertop\RedAlrtop.exe.config). The app reads them at startup, so restart it after editing the file. Properties/Settings.settings is empty and not used.

Key	Default	Set from the UI	Description
AlertSource	http	No	http polls the Oref feed; mqtt uses the MQTT broker. Case-sensitive: anything other than exactly mqtt means HTTP.
Region	*	No (shown only)	* shows every alert. Otherwise the areas to watch; see Region filtering. Don't leave it empty: an empty value shows nothing at all.
SoundFile	(empty)	Yes	Full path of the .wav file to play. When empty, the app sets it to alarmSound.wav in the application folder and saves it on first run.
MQTTBroker	(empty)	No	MQTT broker host name or IP address (MQTT mode only).
MQTTUser	(empty)	No	MQTT user name (MQTT mode only).
MQTTPass	(empty)	No	MQTT password (MQTT mode only).
MQTTPort	(empty)	No	Must be a number in MQTT mode, or the app fails to start the listener. The value is not used: the client always connects to the default port 1883.

Example for MQTT mode:

<appSettings>
  <add key="Region" value="*"/>
  <add key="SoundFile" value=""/>
  <add key="MQTTBroker" value="192.168.1.10"/>
  <add key="MQTTUser" value="your-user"/>
  <add key="MQTTPass" value="your-password"/>
  <add key="MQTTPort" value="1883"/>
  <add key="AlertSource" value="mqtt"/>
</appSettings>

Settings window

Control	What it does
Start RedAlertop at windows startup	Adds or removes the startup shortcut when you click Save.
Region	Shows the configured Region. Changes typed here are not saved; edit the config file instead.
Sound File + ...	Pick a .wav file. Saved to SoundFile when you click Save.
Save	Writes SoundFile to the config file and applies the startup option.
Log box	Lists alerts received since the app started.

Region filtering

With Region set to *, every alert is shown. Don't leave it empty: an empty Region shows nothing at all. Otherwise each alerted area name from the alert's data list is used as a case-insensitive regular expression and searched for inside your Region value. The alert is shown if at least one alerted area name appears in it. This means:

• Each entry must be the complete area name, exactly as Pikud HaOref writes it in Hebrew. A partial name in Region never matches.
• You can watch several areas by listing their full names in one value, for example שדרות, אשקלון - דרום.
• A short alerted area name that happens to appear inside one of your longer entries also fires.
• Because the alerted name is the regex pattern, characters such as (, ) and . are interpreted as regex. An unbalanced bracket throws an error (in MQTT mode this crashes the app).

Area names are listed on the Pikud HaOref website.

Start with Windows

When the option is enabled and saved, the app creates RedAlrtop.lnk in your user Startup folder (%APPDATA%\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\Startup). This is per user. Disabling it deletes every shortcut in that folder that points to the RedAlertop executable.

Usage

• RedAlertop starts minimized and hidden, shows a Red Alert is running balloon, and keeps an icon in the system tray (see Screenshots).
• Double-click the tray icon to open the main window, and double-click it again to hide it.
• The Minimize button minimizes the window to the taskbar.
• The X (close) button exits RedAlertop. It does not hide it to the tray, and no alerts are shown until you start it again.

Troubleshooting

• No alerts in HTTP mode. Check Redalert.log in the application folder for request errors. In an installed copy under Program Files the log probably can't be written without administrator rights, so it may never appear. Make sure www.oref.org.il is reachable from your network.
• No sound. The sound must be a .wav file that exists. Errors while playing are ignored silently, so check the path in the Sound File field.
• Error when saving settings, or a crash on first run. The settings are written to RedAlrtop.exe.config in the installation folder, which needs administrator rights under Program Files. The first launch writes this file, so run it elevated (for example from the installer's finish page). A first launch without elevation would crash; this has not been tested at runtime.
• MQTT mode shows nothing. Check that MQTTPort is a number, that the broker address and credentials are right, and that the publisher sends Oref-format JSON to /redalert. A failed first connection is not reported and not retried: restart the app. After a disconnect the app reconnects but does not resubscribe, so no more alerts arrive until you restart it.
• Region changes don't apply. The Region field in the window is not saved. Edit Region in RedAlrtop.exe.config and restart the app.
• The app doesn't open a second time. Only one instance can run. Look for the existing icon in the tray (it may be in the hidden icons area).

Known issues and limitations

• The published 1.0.0 release predates MQTT support.
• Installer/Setup.iss does not ship M2Mqtt.Net.dll, so MQTT mode fails in copies installed with that script.
• MQTT reconnect doesn't resubscribe to /redalert: after a disconnect no more alerts arrive until the app is restarted.
• A non-JSON message on /redalert (such as Redalert's on), or JSON with a missing or null data field, crashes the app.
• MQTTPort is required but ignored (port 1883 is always used), and MQTT has no TLS option.
• Region filtering is substring-based and uses each alerted area name as a regex pattern, so characters such as parentheses and dots are interpreted as regex, and an unbalanced bracket throws (crashing MQTT mode).
• Overlapping HTTP polls can occasionally show the same alert twice.
• The time shown is when the app received the alert, not the time Oref issued it.
• The Region field in the UI is read-only in practice (not saved).
• Notifications are balloon tips; Windows Focus Assist or notification settings can hide them.

Security notes

• MQTT credentials are stored in plain text in RedAlrtop.exe.config. Restrict access to that file and use a broker account that can only read the alert topic.
• The MQTT connection is not encrypted. Use it only on a trusted local network.
• The setup files are not code-signed. Prefer building from source if you can't verify the binary.
• The app makes outbound requests only (to Oref or to your broker) and does not listen on any port.

Development

Build

1. Open RedAlrtop/RedAlrtop.sln in Visual Studio 2019 with the .NET desktop development workload and the .NET Framework 4.5 targeting pack. Visual Studio 2022 doesn't ship the 4.5 targeting pack, so you would need to install it separately or retarget the project.
2. Fix the Interop.IWshRuntimeLibrary reference: its hint path (..\..\..\Interop.IWshRuntimeLibrary.dll) points outside the repository. Copy the committed RedAlrtop/RedAlrtop/bin/Interop.IWshRuntimeLibrary.dll to that path, or remove the reference and re-add it as a COM reference to Windows Script Host Object Model.
3. Restore NuGet packages (Newtonsoft.Json 13.0.1 and Plt.M2Mqtt 4.3.0.3; they are also committed under RedAlrtop/packages/).
4. Build the solution. The output is RedAlrtop.exe with RedAlrtop.exe.config, alarmSound.wav and the dependency DLLs.

The project also uses COM references (Shell32 and the Windows Script Host object model) to manage the startup shortcut, so it builds and runs on Windows only.

To build the installer, copy the build output to the paths listed in Installer/Setup.iss (the script reads the files from C:\Program Files (x86)\RedAlertop\) and compile it with Inno Setup 6. The setup is written to Installer/Output/RedAlertop.exe.

Project layout

Installer/
  Setup.iss                  Inno Setup script
  RedAlertop.ifp, RedAlrtop.ifp   InstallForge projects (older)
  Output/RedAlertop.exe      Built setup (unsigned)
RedAlrtop/                   Solution folder (note the spelling)
  RedAlrtop.sln
  packages/                  NuGet packages
  RedAlrtop/
    Program.cs               Entry point, single-instance mutex
    RedAlertop.cs            Main form: settings, tray icon, notifications, sound
    RedAlertop.Designer.cs   Form layout
    Alert.cs                 Alert model (id, title, data)
    BetterRichTextBox.cs     Colored, auto-scrolling log box
    StartupManager.cs        Startup-folder shortcut handling
    Helpers/OrefListener.cs  HTTP polling of the Oref feed
    Helpers/MQTTListener.cs  MQTT subscriber
    Common/                  Event argument classes
    App.config               Settings (appSettings)
    alarmSound.wav           Default alarm sound
screeshots/                  README images

Contributing

Found a bug or have an idea? Open an issue on the Issues page or send a pull request.

Please ⭐ this repo if you find it useful.

License

This repository has no license file (the LICENSE file was deleted in May 2021). Without a license, default copyright applies and no reuse rights are granted.